Courts determine when the statute of limitations begins to run against an attorney in one of two general ways.  Either continuous representation ends when there is no longer a relationship of trust and confidence (acrimonious communication) or when the attorney withdraws.  Both can be the basis for the onset of the statute.  In York v Frank  2022 NY Slip Op 05738  Decided on October 12, 2022  Appellate Division, Second Department takes the more conservative position, which it does not always do.

“On October 5, 1999, the plaintiff entered into a retainer agreement with the defendant Blank Rome, LLP, formerly known as Tenzer Greenblatt, LLP (hereinafter the law firm), to provide legal representation, inter alia, in a divorce action. The defendant Donald Frank, an attorney with the law firm, executed the retainer agreement on behalf of the law firm. The attorney-client relationship subsequently deteriorated, and in an order dated June 8, 2001, the Supreme Court, inter [*2]alia, granted that branch of the defendants’ motion which was to withdraw as counsel for the plaintiff in the divorce action. On August 15, 2001, the plaintiff retained new counsel.

On June 2, 2004, the plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages for legal malpractice. Thereafter, the defendants moved pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the amended complaint on the grounds, inter alia, that it was time-barred and that it failed to state a cause of action. In an order entered March 28, 2019, the Supreme Court, among other things, granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the amended complaint on the ground that it was time-barred. The plaintiff then moved for leave to reargue her opposition to the defendants’ motion. In an order entered September 16, 2019, the court, inter alia, denied the plaintiff’s motion for leave to reargue. In a judgment entered September 19, 2019, the court dismissed the amended complaint. The plaintiff appeals.

“An action to recover damages for legal malpractice must be commenced within three years from the accrual of the claim” (Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d 159, 163; see CPLR 214[6]). “Accrual is measured from the commission of the alleged malpractice, when all facts necessary to the cause of action have occurred and the aggrieved party can obtain relief in court, regardless of when the operative facts are discovered by the plaintiff” (Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d at 164 [citations omitted]; see Shumsky v Eisenstein, 96 NY2d 164, 166). The doctrine of continuous representation tolls the three-year statute of limitations “for the period following the alleged malpractice until the attorney’s continuing representation of the client on a particular matter is completed” (Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d at 164).

Here, the defendants failed to establish, prima facie, that the action was commenced more than three years after the plaintiff’s claims alleging legal malpractice in connection with the divorce action accrued. The plaintiff commenced this action by filing a summons with notice on June 2, 2004 (see CPLR 304(a); Jones v Bill, 10 NY3d 550, 554; LeBlanc v Skinner, 103 AD3d 202, 208). Based on the defendants’ submissions, the parties’ attorney-client relationship did not end until at least June 8, 2001, when the Supreme Court granted that branch of the defendants’ motion which was to withdraw as counsel for the plaintiff in the divorce action (see Tulino v Hiller, P.C., 202 AD3d 1132, 1135; Garafalo v Mayoka, 151 AD3d 1018, 1019; Farage v Ehrenberg, 124 AD3d at 165). Thus, in this action, the Supreme Court should not have granted dismissal of the amended complaint on the ground that it was time-barred.”